In 1979 U.K. was booming with punk scene, how did you get to make band suck out of any fashion movement or style like THE SWELL MAPS?

We had been playing together since 1972 whereas most of the bands in the punk scene followed Mark P's advice in Sniffin' Glue: "Here's three chords - now form a band!" We had more depth and more knowledge of music than most of our contemporaries. This is one of the reasons that Epic, Jowe and I continued making music after the break up of Swell Maps. We weren't just playing in a band because it was fashionable. We did it because we had no choice in the matter.

How would you describe SWELL MAPS music?

Epic and I always thought of Swell Maps as a cross between T.Rex and Can. We were four individuals with our own musical likes and dislikes. We liked a lot of the same bands and this came across. But we (some more than others) had quite eclectic tastes. When Johnny Rotten did his radio show in 1977 / 1978 he played a lot of the music that had influenced him. If we had done a similar programme it would have surprised as many people as his did. We would have played T.Rex, Fairport Convention, The Groundhogs, Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Led Zeppelin, Mott The Hoople, New York Dolls, Can, Peter Sarstedt, Van der Graaf Generator, King Crimson, Gentle Giant. We had a lot of different influences. Most punk bands had no reference points. The only bands from that time I still listen to are The Adverts, The Boys, Lurkers, Clash and the Pistols. These, for me, were the only bands with any real depth in their music.

Somehow that band takes me to THE FALL. Was there any relation between both bands, or any alternative scene that you could tell us about?

Mark Smith and I never got on. I never liked the Fall. Epic used to like them and Mark asked him to play drums for the Fall a few times.

After that period, there is another very important R/N/R scene in the middle 80s in Berlin which you were part of. What made you go there?

I first went to Berlin in 1985 and I fell in love with the place. Before I'd been there I'd seen Cabaret and Just A Gigolo and those two films coloured my initial view of the city. When the Wall was up Berlin was the only 'island' in the middle of land in the world. It was a very special place - quite unlike anywhere else. New York in 1980 had the same sort of feel, but nowhere else I've ever been came close. Anything went at the time. You could do anything you liked and a lot of people did. Bars were (and still are) open 24-hours a day. Before I lived in Berlin I used to go out every night when I was here. Now I live here I go out some nights, others I stay at home and read or write… work has to be done sometimes. I moved to Berlin in 1996 - I've been here eight years and every year Berlin becomes more and more like a 'normal' city.

When the wall came down a friend of mine who'd lived in Berlin for many years said, "It's great! Now Berlin can become a 'normal' city." I thought there's enough normal cities on this earth - why do we need another one! Berlin has never really had a 'rock'n roll' scene. There are a lot of good bands - some play rock'n roll, some play pink, some play folk… But there are a lot of bands in Berlin… Which is good.

How was the scene there with people like ROWLAND S HOWARD, BAD SEEDS, EISTURZENDE NEUBAUTEN, etc? (Actually your record with RS Howard is one of my favourite ones ever).

Rowland only stayed in Berlin for six months - then he went back to London. Nick Cave stayed here until the mid / late eighties before moving to Brazil and then on to London - where he lives now. You'd bump into Blixa or Nick or other Berlin musicians most nights at XN Pop - which at the time was one of the coolest bars in the world. They even had a 'drug room' where you could take anything you wanted. The local drug dealers had their 'office' in the toilets. You could buy and take everything there. And everyone did.

You are the kind of musician that we, your fans, include in a group of "R/N/R outlaws" such as Tyla, Andy McCoy, Keith Richards... Is there any relation between all of you, or any common point we could know?

I know Tyla, I know Andy McCoy. I've met Keith a few times but I'm sure he hasn't got a clue who I am. I'm sure he's never heard my music. Marlon is a friend of mine and he likes my music - maybe he's played it to his dad. I don't know. A friend of mine gave Ronnie Wood a copy of Treasure Island last week. Next time she sees Ronnie - she sees him quite often - she'll ask what he thought of the album. I've met Ronnie a bunch of times but again I'm sure he's no idea who Nikki Sudden is. It's the times we live in. Both Keith and Ronnie know Ryan Adams - and Ryan is a friend of mine… If I were more popular they'd know me… But life's not always fair!

You have always been apart from any musical hype or fashion. That's a fact. JACOBITES, FRENCH REVOLUTION... are all in the same style. Nikki Sudden style, we guess. What are your bigger influences? It's easy to relate it to THE ROLLING STONES in the early 70s or to THE FACES, but what else could we know about your musical roots?

I've always tried to make records that sound timeless. Records that could have been recorded in 1967 or 2007. I've never bent to the current fashions of the music business. Make a record that sounds contemporary and in two or three years it sounds so out of date or just plain awful.

What other bands or musicians you feel that are in the same style as yours?

The Rolling Stones, Dave Kusworth, Tyla (Dogs D'Amour), Kevin K (kind of). I like TV Smith (ex-Adverts) but I don't think we play the same kind of music. Darrell Bath is a great guitarist and a cool songwriter.

If we are not wrong, you're living in Berlin, now. What do you find so interesting to make us comprehend why so many musicians move there?

When the wall was up Berlin was a very special place. Any boy growing up in Germany in those days had to go into the Army or do Social Services for a couple of years. But if you lived in Berlin you were exempt from that. So all the cool Germans - the filmmakers, the writers, the artists ands the musicians all came to Berlin. That was one of the things that made the scene so vibrant in those days. Now Berlin is the same as the rest of Germany… It's still different, it's the only German city where I could live but I've been here for eight years and I want to move. Somewhere warmer. Berlin is fine during the summer but in the winter it's so cold!

Berlin is a capital city but it's also incredibly cheap compared with other major cities. For my rent each month in Berlin I would pay even more each week in London or Paris for a smaller place!

You have a lot of connections with Australian R/N/R. Do you think you can be included in their scene? What do you think about Australian musical scene?

I've been to Australia for one day of my life. But I've worked with Rowland Howard, with Lindy Morrison (Go-Betweens), Hugo Race, Chris Hughes. I'm very friendly with a lot of Berlin-based Australian musicians.